If you’re trying to lose weight, you may have thought about getting on a low-carb diet. Before getting started, you’re probably wondering how this diet works and what sets it apart from typical yo-yo diets that aren’t successful. Many physicians recommend low-carb diets to patients looking to lose weight and reach a healthy BMI. It’s essential to understand how the diet works before you start making such significant dietary changes. Although it may sound like a difficult diet to follow, there are things you can do to make it a lot easier.
How does a low-carb diet actually work?
When you are consuming an excessive amount of carbohydrates, your body stores the fat. The body can’t burn all the carbohydrates as energy, so some of those carbs get stored in the form of fat, thus resulting in love handles, stomach pooches, and excess fat in other parts of the body. When you start to follow a low-carb diet, your insulin levels drop, your body begins to burn fat to give you energy, and you begin to get rid of any water weight. It’s one of several reasons people tend to notice a significant difference within a few weeks of consuming fewer carbohydrates.
What Are Some Low-Carb Foods?
Some people feel that low-carb diets are too restrictive and only consist of vegetables with hardly any fruits, but this isn’t true. These are a handful of the many low-carb foods you can enjoy if you decide to follow a low-carb diet:
- Chicken Breast
- Cauliflower
- Salmon
- Tuna
- Almonds
- Apples
- Zucchini Noodles
- Beef Jerky
Although these are a few of the low-carb selections you can enjoy to lose weight, you’ll have dozens of other excellent food options available. Because low-carb diets are becoming more popular than ever before, it’s easier to find low-carb versions of some of your favorite foods.
Our meal plan app and tools make it even easier for you to enjoy meals that you and your family will enjoy, all while staying within the parameters of the diet plan.
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How Do You Stick to a Low-Carb Diet?
Sticking to a low-carb diet might seem impossible, but if you’re willing to buy what you need and get rid of what you don’t need, it’ll naturally become easier with time. The first thing you should do is avoid buying carb-heavy foods, such as:
- Bread
- Bagels
- Chips
- Cakes
- Pasta
- Rice
These carb-heavy foods might taste great, but they’ll prevent you from sticking to your low-carb diet. The great news is that there are low-carb alternatives for each of these options. Instead of eating traditional bread, you can buy keto bread or make low-carb bread from scratch at home. You can do the same thing with bagels!
There are low-carb desserts made with stevia instead of sugar to make them better for those following low-carb diets. You can even use alternatives for rice and pasta, such as cauliflower rice and zucchini noodles or spaghetti squash.
Knowing what you should and shouldn’t eat on a low-carb diet is important. Once you know what to avoid, you can make the right buying decisions at the grocery store. It’s also a good idea to start looking online for low-carb recipes. You’ll be surprised to find thousands of unique and tasty recipes that will help you stay on track.
Even if you’re busy and don’t have a lot of time to make meals from scratch, you can find keto-friendly slow cooker meals that are simple enough to prepare. An added bonus is you won’t be spending as much time in the kitchen preparing and cooking meals.
Make Changes With a Low-Carb Diet
You can make positive changes to your body and overall health when following a low-carb diet. It doesn’t mean that you can’t have carbs here and there. It’s all about having them in moderation and using alternative ingredients as much as possible. Once you start seeing results, it’ll become that much easier for you to stick to these new dietary changes.
In most cases, people who follow a low-carb diet have been able to slowly add a few carbs back to their diet all without experiencing adverse reactions. It’s a matter of knowing what’s best for you and your body and sticking with it!
